FRISCO, Texas — Derrick Henry has 212 rushing yards and 4 touchdowns in two games for the Baltimore Ravens. Dallas Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said Wednesday at The Star that the key to slowing the 32-year-old running back Sunday in Rio de Janeiro is keeping him from building to full speed.
Henry ran 24 times for 144 yards and 3 touchdowns in Baltimore’s 41-23 win over the Indianapolis Colts in Week 1. That was his 26th career game with at least 100 rushing yards and 2 rushing touchdowns, moving him past Jim Brown for the most in NFL history. Against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday, he had 68 yards and a touchdown on 16 carries in a 24-17 loss.
A 20-yard catch in the first quarter against New Orleans pushed Henry to 15,011 career scrimmage yards. He is the first active player past 15,000. In 2025, he ran for 1,595 yards and 16 touchdowns.
Fans do not realize how big Henry is unless they are at field level, Schottenheimer said.
“Very unique,” Schottenheimer said. “We’ve competed against him a couple times. I laugh because you don’t realize how big he is unless you’re truly standing out there on the field watching this guy. The fans, unfortunately, unless they’re down there field level, they don’t realize how big Derrick is. But the speed is real. The violence that he runs with is real. His stiff arm is real. We’ve all remembered the clip where he stiff-arms Josh Norman in Tennessee and he buries him into the ground. He’s a unique individual. He’s a unique athlete.”
“The key to Derrick is, in my opinion, you have to not let him get started,” Schottenheimer continued. “If he gets seams and he gets started and he’s able to press the hole and put his foot in the ground, that’s a problem because of what I’ve said. You have to junk up the front for him and make it to where he can’t press his hole and build up to full speed because he is a big guy. So if you slow him down a little bit, it’s harder for him to get top speed. Now, once he gets top speed, I don’t know if many people are gonna catch him.”
“So that’s the big thing for us is we can’t give them seams in the running game,” Schottenheimer added. “We have to create some knockback, some movement, display some color for them so the reads aren’t clean.”
Derrick Henry Ran For 151 Yards Against Dallas Cowboys In 2024
Dallas last saw Henry on Sept. 22, 2024, in his first season with Baltimore. He ran for 151 yards and 2 touchdowns in the Ravens’ 28-25 win at AT&T Stadium. Baltimore finished with 274 rushing yards that day and led by as many as 22 points.
The Cowboys allowed 165 rushing yards to the New York Giants in the 28-20 loss that opened this season. Dallas gave up 125.5 rushing yards per game in 2025.
Linebacker DeMarvion Overshown is making good progress from a hamstring strain. Schottenheimer said Wednesday there is a low probability he plays Sunday.
Brian Schottenheimer On Baltimore Ravens Offensive Line
Schottenheimer said the Cowboys teach block destruction with the hands and the shed, and that Baltimore’s guards are big enough to make that hard.
“Big powerful group, really do a nice job of moving and lifting and displacing,” Schottenheimer explained. “We talk about displacement. You create seams for a guy like Derrick Henry, and he’s got the vision, he’s got the experience to find the seams. And he’s such a build-up speed player that when you get displacement and you knock something laterally, the linebacker’s there, and these guards are very, very powerful.”
“So that matchup, if the guard climbs to the second level on a linebacker, it’s a tough matchup for those guys,” Schottenheimer noted. “We teach block destruction with hands and shed and all that stuff, but these are big physical guys. So we need our big guys to play really well this week up front.”
The Cowboys practice Thursday in Frisco and fly to Rio de Janeiro that night. Kickoff at Maracanã Stadium is 3:25 p.m. CT Sunday on CBS, with Dallas as the designated home team.
